Electronic textiles are textiles with electronics integrated in the fabric. Normally, electronic textiles comprises conductive wires weaved as warp and/or weft yarns into a fabric and electronic components connected to the conductive wires. With electronic textiles, new application fields emerge, wherein the benefits of textile are combined with electronic functions. However, the integration of electronics in the fabric makes handling of an electronic textile throughout its life cycle different from handling of conventional textiles with respect to a number of different aspects concerning everything from manufacturing to end of product life issues.
A textile is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,025. The textile comprises a flex circuit formed by a flexible substrate with electronically conductive traces and electronic components on it. The flex circuit is secured to a fabric by welding, adhesive or sewing, whereby the need of conductive fibers in the fabric is eliminated. A drawback with such a textile is that there, on one hand, is a risk of the flex circuit to come loose from the fabric due to wear and tear, and on the other hand, it may be cumbersome to remove the flex circuit from the fabric if the textile shall be waste sorted at the end of its life.